The Lafayette Parish Council of Governments is expected to meet in April to discuss a topic that has long been a source of tension among the towns. The Lafayette Parish Council of Governments, an inter-governmental body comprising the mayors of Lafayette's six incorporated municipalities, is expected to meet in April to discuss a topic that has long been a source of tension among the towns: annexation. That tension has been especially acute between Lafayette and Broussard, which has rapidly expanded its tax base over the last decade through aggressive annexation, particularly along U.S. Highway 90.
City-Parish Council Chairman Jay Castille, who also chairs the Council of Governments, says he hopes to sit the mayors down in April. "I'm expecting everyone to show up at this meeting," Castille says. Broussard Mayor Charles Langlinais may be the only official who needs convincing; he and City-Parish President Joey Durel are increasingly at odds over roughly half the Ambassador Caffery Parkway South extension, which will open later this month and currently cuts through unincorporated Lafayette Parish between Verot School Road and La. 89.
Durel is proposing an annexation map that would allow what remains of unincorporated Lafayette Parish to be annexed by all the municipalities - Broussard, Carencro, Duson, Lafayette, Scott and Youngsville - commensurate with their current size. Castille says he has seen Durel's annexation map and is willing to put it on the agenda. "We have to be careful on how we handle and go about it," he says. "Certainly it's a possibility, but those lines, we'll have to look at them again real hard. It's an idea, you know?"
In the meantime, the CPC on Tuesday will vote on four introductory ordinances that would allow Lafayette to annex parcels of unincorporated Lafayette into the city. Those annexations include Fabacher Field and Les Vieux Chenes Golf Course, both in south Lafayette Parish near Broussard and Youngsville. Both facilities, while currently in unincorporated parts of the parish, are owned by the city of Lafayette and maintained through the city-funded Department of Parks and Recreation.